Monday, October 17, 2005

Judging (DC's January) Books By Their Covers

DC's January Solicitations are up, so now is as good a time as any for us to make prejudgements based just on the covers (as we all love to make prejudgements, don't we? And DC's covers are at least detailed enough that we CAN make prejudgements based on them!).

Let's begin!

First off, just to screw with me, no Jock Batman cover for me to say how good it is!!

Luckily, there at least was some Cliff Chiang goodness for me to look at.

"1. I don't even LIKE super realistic art that much, but man, Bolland is so awesome!"

Yes he is. That trade will be too.

"Great Wagner art, but really doesn't do much for the story."

It tells you Batman's in jail.

"I think Perez wins."

Yeah, but I find that Firestorm cover unitentionally hilarious, because it implies to me that he's the only person that would care about his death.

"Who wins?

I choose Old School."

I choose YOU ARE SEVERELY WRONG!

"Here is new DC stud Acuña's road bump."

I thought his covers looked fine. Why are you so wrong?

"5. It's Phillip Bond drawing a big ass bug.

Come on, who wouldn't pick this comic up?"

People who would only read a series about exterminators if he was doing the interiors?

"Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio (or Paschal Ferry?)"

To Marvel, apparently. That art switch will be rough, especially since one of 7 Soldiers selling points for me was the fact that Morrison hand picked these artists. After the maddening inconsistentcy of his New X-Men run, it was nice that he had all of these guys for a full story. Ah well.

Wow, that Bat symbol flower wreath is gorgeous (too bad the bottom part is ugly.) The Detective & Gotham Knights covers are both swanky and scary. I'm digging both Supergirl covers- I've never re-bought an issue for a cover, but that 'old-timey' looking Supergirl is too cute to resist. Supergirl is one of the very few characters I collect comics of though, so I don't feel TOO guilty...

Um, I'm torn on the Catwoman. It's good and scary at the same time. You may choose old school, but I adore the new Green Lantern cover. Just gorgeous and unique, the brushstrokes and colors are amazing. Same with that Fables cover, yummy.So in closing, my top 5 is-

1) Wonder Woman- conveys so much with so little 2) Supergirl re-dux 3) Green Lantern new school 4) Batgirl- I agree, genius use of color 5) Superman #223- super iconic

"People who would only read a series about exterminators if he was doing the interiors?"

C'mon, man, Tony Moore from the Walking Dead and Fear Agent is doing the interiors. That makes for good comics, Phillip Bond or no.

I'm very much looking forward to the Alan Moore collection, despite the timing of its release appearing to be a slap in the face to Moore. I've only read "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorrow?" in Spanish . . . and my Spanish is terrible.

I guess the Catwoman storyline is going to lead to the revelation she was "adjusted" by Zatanna.

Seriously, that's fucking lame. I didn't totally fall in love with Brubaker's Catwoman (And Trail of the Gun did a ten times better job of setting up Selina's conversion than Selina's Big Score) but I liked it quite a bit, and what's the point of saying that was all fake? To make Brad Meltzer feel better? Man, he really ruined everything.

Catwoman's the star of her series. I'd be willing to bet that her "adjustment" is more than it appears to be. Just like some of the Rogues...I'll believe that Heat Wave was adjusted (I won't like it, but I'll believe it. Dude operated out of my town!), but the original Trickster? He's infiltrating the Rogues under cover of being modified, I guarantee.

Catwoman, I think, will discover that she was altered, but that it either wore off, or some other twist in there. At any rate, it's going to leave her with an...dare I say it? Identity Crisis.

Actually, it's looking interesting enough that I might start buying the series at #50 (I have been eyeing the trades a little).

Y'know, honestly, I'd be perfectly happy if all the superhero books vanished tomorrow and were replaced by giant bug comics. It's about time for a sea change. Via La Bugsolution@!!

That's The Exterminator's #1. And I, too, support the idea of more bug comics.

What's up with that Flash cover? So, the Flash is moving so fast that his costume disintegrates, but his regular clothes hold up fine? Maybe he should switch to denim.

Billy Dallas Patton is no Pascual Ferry, but I like that cover all right. I actually think it's one of the better ones for the month. My favorites are the Cliff Chiang Detective Comics, the Adam Hughes Catwoman, the Joe Kubert Sgt. Rock and, of course, the Philip Bond The Exterminators. I hate real bugs, but comic book bugs rock.

For now, I'm going to just tell myself that the Mr. Miracle cover was rushed and the book will still be great.

The first issue relied a lot on the art because not a whole lot interesting happened in the writing. I trust Morrison enough to think he's just setting things up, and by the end mediocre art will be overcome by the story.

"What's up with that Flash cover? So, the Flash is moving so fast that his costume disintegrates, but his regular clothes hold up fine? Maybe he should switch to denim."

It is not clear, hence my reaction to it, as I'm not POSITIVE what Thibert is trying to say with the cover, but I BELIEVE what is happening is that Wally is transforming INTO his Flash costume in the drawing.

I believe the current status quo for Flash's costume is that it is a Speed Force construct that Wally can make appear like the old Power Pack costumes.

It is not clear, hence my reaction to it, as I'm not POSITIVE what Thibert is trying to say with the cover, but I BELIEVE what is happening is that Wally is transforming INTO his Flash costume in the drawing.

I believe the current status quo for Flash's costume is that it is a Speed Force construct that Wally can make appear like the old Power Pack costumes.

Makes sense. Still, can you imagine the Flash in a denim costume? That would be so cool.

Someone else asked me about that recently, and the reason I have always maintained is that DC covers generally at least give you an IDEA about the comic, so you actually COULD sorta prejudge, while Marvel covers are generally just pin-ups.

However, I have noticed that, as of late, the DC comments I have made have begun to swing towards general statements about the art ANYways...so maybe that reasoning doesn't hold up anymore.